January 22, 2016

Dr. Molly Brignall

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a very common occurrence in women. Symptoms can include mood swings and cramps during certain times of a menstrual cycle. The majority of the time, health care providers give birth control
pills to eliminate these symptoms. Many women are looking for natural solutions instead of hormonal pills.

January 29, 2016

Dr. Savio Pham

"The phrase "Big Data" has been a big buzz in the last few years and continued to gain traction. In the meantime, information technology (IT) professionals are scrambling to learn how to deal with a humongous amount of
data while those in other disciplines (e.g. biologists) are concerned with how their prescribed professions will gradually change and demand this new skill set. Come to this seminar and un-myth Big Data."

February 5, 2016

Sara Harrold and Philip Swartzendruber (Puget Sound Clean Air Agency)

Our common activities are generating the bulk of today's air pollution - exhaust from vehicles, yard and recreational equipment, and smoke from our chimneys and burn piles.

If we all made just one air-friendly behavior change - how we get to work, how we heat our homes, for example - collectively we could dramatically reduce emissions of toxic air pollutants and greenhouse gases. Together,
we can keep our region's air healthy and clean.

Should Tacoma build the biggest methanol plant in the world? Should the Pacific Northwest, combined with two other plants in Washington and Oregon, double the supply of methanol which is a major ingredient in making
plastic? Is this a good choice for our economy? Our environment? How do you balance our economic health with local and global impacts? This week’s seminar will look at the process for making methanol and then the regulator
procedure which is currently underway. Learn what you can do to have your voice heard during the public comment period.

February 26, 2016

Kip Wanzer and Kurt Giessel (Information Technology Services)

An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to transmit light between the two ends of
the fiber and find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at higher data rates than wire cables. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel
along them with lesser amounts of loss; in addition, fibers are also immune to electromagnetic interference, a problem from which metal wires suffer excessively.

March 4, 2016

Dr. Helen Burn (Mathematics)

Important math concepts are sometimes described using words that have negative everyday meanings, such as inequality, irrational, and deviation. This talk focuses on several of these terms, explores what they mean in
mathematics, and proposes positive alternatives.